Increased productivity and cost reduction continue to be significant objectives for organizations in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Those objectives are even more critical in work environments which are labor intensive. Consequently, in recent years businesses have automated more of these labor intensive activities. Examples include word processing, computer-aided manufacturing and automated inventory control systems, to name a few.
In the field of telecommunications particularly, this activity has intensified due to a changed operating environment from that of a regulated service to one in which there now is open competition. To remain competitive in the industry and still effectively control the massive telecommunications network, telephone operating companies have automated substantial portions of their record keeping, order processing and equipment maintenance activities.
Even though those separate functional activities have been mechanized to improve work efficiency, there are numerous operations utilizing a combination of such mechanized systems which still continue to rely heavily on manual procedures. One such area is the operation by which craftspersons are dispatched to the field, for example, to install new telephones, to maintain already-installed systems, or to troubleshoot and repair defective equipment.
Present manual dispatch procedures are outdated, labor intensive and paper driven. In these prior art operations, order activity received from a mechanized service order record keeping system is assigned manually and then routed to field forces using geographic grid numbers. Assignments are batched based on work units and skill levels.
Trouble reports, which are received from a mechanized trouble reporting system, are assigned one at a time based on commitment, appointment, and trouble condition. Here again, geographic grid numbers are utilized to reduce driving time. As the work force calls in to clear their current trouble assignment, a clerk requests a new assignment from a dispatcher. Due to the sequential nature of the process, delays are often encountered, resulting in lost time for the work force.
Additionally, work completion data is recorded on multiple documents and entered into multiple bookkeeping systems, e.g., service order record keeping system, trouble administration system, time sheets, and payroll by the dispatch clerk. This duplication of effort is not only time consuming, but could result in recording inconsistent data. The work force loses productive time as they wait for the clerk to complete the required documentation. Further, the reports produced from these entries also require reconciliation time.
Due to the manual nature of the process, it is difficult to monitor and track time commitments. Hence, there is an increased chance that potential conflicts are not recognized early enough to remedy a problem. Oftentimes, this results in missed commitments.
This manual process does not easily permit consolidation or adjustment to handle changes in work volume. Further, utilizing these procedures, the dispatch process becomes very intuitive rather than mathematically sound. Thus the efficiency of the dispatch process is directly related to the skill and expertise of the dispatcher. What is needed is an automated system which administers and controls those related work functions by integrating them into a unified work process, and dispatches assignments in a nearly optimal and consistent manner.